They’re clammy. They’re rubbery. They’re often deep-fried in vegetable oil. And though the red abalone of California was once a staple of dirt-cheap seafood shacks, this big slippery sea snail is today one of the…
Posts published by “Alastair Bland”
I previously served up a short listing of alcoholic beverages of the world — and I’m glad I’m merely writing about so much booze. For had I set myself to tasting my way across the…
Where there is sugar, yeast will find it — and so we have alcohol. The natural wonder we call fermentation has been discovered and replicated independently in nearly every region of earth, and virtually nowhere…
People’s paths cross endlessly as they make their brief journeys through this world, but only occasionally do eyes meet and sparks fly. Even less often, the two paths will course together for a distance, and…
Super Bowl Sunday is over up, and I’ve been asking local pubs here on the South Island of New Zealand if they caught the world’s biggest game on television. But the national sport of New…
The Turks were so patient for putting up with me this fall as I cycled around the western half of Turkey. I cringe now when I recall the many times, while in conversation with strangers,…
Gravity dictates the truest mantra on Earth: What goes up must come down. But give me a bicycle and a mountain, and I’ll break that law or die trying. Whether by blessing or curse, I…
San Joaquin Valley irrigation districts, which filed a lawsuit this month to stop California's commercial salmon fishing season just five days after it began, say they're worried that fishing will harm the state's salmon populations,…